Jail inmates get new medical program

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February 19, 2009

By AMBER DILLEY The Glasgow Daily Times Thu Feb 19, 2009, 01:08 PM CST

GLASGOW — The Barren County Fiscal Court approved a new medical program for jail inmates from Southern Health Partners during the meeting Tuesday.

Before the fiscal court meeting, the jail committee met and heard proposals from Advantage Health Care and Southern Health.

Les Singleton with Advantage, who met with the committee in September, presented a proposal that would cost the county $116,000 plus a $20,000 pool to be used for offsite care.

The program also only allows for certain medications to be purchased for inmates.

James Kemper, with Southern Health Partners and a former jailer of Franklin County, proposed a plan that would cost $118,080 plus a $20,000 outpatient pool.

The program includes all prescription medications including dentist prescriptions, an on-call doctor, a nurse that will work weekdays and weekends and will include the county in the coverage plan.

“This is based on 140 inmates,” Kemper said. “If you exceed that on a continual basis, we’ll re-evaluate the figure.”

The jail holds about 115 inmates on average, according to Barren County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Mutter.

The program would have a nurse on site for eight hours during the week, four on Saturday and four on Sunday.

The nurse will do two pill calls during the day and package the third call for jail deputies to hand out, according to Kemper.

The jail has been without a doctor since Dr. Bill Townsend retired, but has retained Townsend’s nurse. The county gets reimbursed through the state for some care and deputy jailers have been transporting the inmates to Urgent Care for medical treatment, which “costs a bundle, each time,” said Magistrate Billy Houchens.

Mutter and the jail committee recommended the Southern Health Partners program to the fiscal court.

“I figured we’ve been spending about $115,000 a year just on medical costs, including the nurse’s salary and benefits,” Mutter said. “The rest of the cost is the insurance that they will cover for us. Right now, we don’t have that coverage.”

The court approved the program from Southern Health Partners, 5-3, with Magistrates Tommy Matthews, Howard Bowman Jr. and Charles Allen voting no.

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